Through the Sallyport to China

Jo Ling Kent is an associate producer and Web journalist for CNN based in the Beijing bureau. As one of two producers covering China for all CNN platforms, she has produced breaking news and features on Liu Xiaobo"s Nobel Peace Prize, the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, Google"s decision to leave China, President Obama"s first visit to Asia, China"s 60th anniversary, the environment, currency, China"s youngest elected village chief and, most recently, China"s reactions to events in the Middle East and the Japan earthquake. From 2007 to 2008, Kent was a Web journalist for ABC News, covering the Beijing Olympics, the 2008 Taiwan presidential elections, the Sichuan earthquake and the economy. She was also a member of the first-ever team of American journalists to broadcast live from Tibet to the United States.

Kent is also the founder and chair of the Annual International Women"s Day Benefit, a fundraising event and scholarship program that since 2006 has funded women teachers and grassroots mentoring programs that have empowered young women in the United States and China.

A U.S. Fulbright Fellow to China from 2006 to 2007, Kent received master"s degrees in international affairs from the London School of Economics (LSE) and Peking University, where she was a Wagoner Fellow. She also holds a B.A. in history, policy studies and Asian studies from Rice University, where she was a member of the Baker Institute Student Forum (BISF). She grew up in Minnesota and speaks fluent Chinese. Follow her on Twitter @joCNN.

Kent"s visit is sponsored by the Transnational China Project of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, and co-hosted by the Chao Center for Asian Studies, BISF, Leadership Rice and the Office of Undergraduate Research.